After a long period without blogging I will now give a quick overview about the situation of the area of Mytilini and closeby.

For now the mayor has decided not to close the camp of Kara Tepe. It remains a camp in which only syrian refugees wait for there transfer papers.

The first registration area for all arriving refugees is mainly in the port.

Moria is still used as a detention centre and has (in my opinion) turned into the most vulnerable spot. People still wait outside Moria, just like on my second day. The only difference is that now it is only used for non-syrian refugees (mainly afghan, pakistani, iraki. but other nationalities, too of course.) because they have to face other procedures (like giving fingerprints) and for them it takes longer as they don´t have the kind of fast track system that syrian refugees do.

Pikpa, as a non-state-run camp didn´t have to go through those troubles of course and didn´t change much during the past days or week.People come and go and some others stay.

I will not continue about Pikpa here because it does not belong to the same topic really, as it is run by the association of the village and compared to what happens on the island in other places not quite the same thing and cannot be covered here.

Kara Tepe has got showers, fresh ground, a lot less people, finally medical support and other supports like people distributing diapers, shoes, sanitary towels, soaps and so on from time to time.

Yet it is to say that MDM an MSF have started approximately a week ago so about 1st August. On monday the 3rd August more than 15 doctors and nurses of whole greece came and built a solidarity clinic tent at Kara Tepe. So for the last five days there have been more than enough medical helpers. The solidarity doctors however did a lot more than “just” taking medical care: They distributed things, played and painted with the children and one of the most important things: They were present! They were there. They gave Kara Tepe a new face because there was someone to come to, even though no authority, no one actually responsible, it however felt to me like something very precious.

The solidarity doctors will leave tomorrow. They were great! I am very happy they were here. They will also leave the tent and there was a meeting with local doctors who will hopefully continue this great work.

So, many things have improved at Kara Tepe. Still all new arrivals are in shock when they face their situation in Kara Tepe and the insecurity of not knowing how long they will have to stay. Luckily for what I can say by now people have to wait for their papers approximately two nights or less.

So has Kara Tepe improved? Yes, it has. But what about the toilets? Enough tents? Food? No. Nothing. We don´t know what the NGOs have in mind and what next steps will be taken. And then there´s also autumn ahead coming. Like this it cannot continue.

(I notice just now – and maybe you dear reader notice it, too – that I don´t even think about E.U. support or improvements coming from mayor or municipality. Well, that´s the situation as it is. Not even thinking about it.)

And even though I´d like to think that the horror of Kara Tepe´s last weeks has been averted, I feel like it has only changed places. Kara Tepe the way I first saw it, is not over. It has just another name and now it is called Moria.

With Moria a lot of other problems appear: Firstly you never know what happens inside. Secondly when I speak of Moria I actually mean the waiting people outside of Moria, about the inside, once again, we do not know. And thirdly: Because it is about a not even officially existing area, and maybe also because people are already almost in such an official area it is uneasy to help for no one really knows about responsibilities (police? mayor? us?) and easy to forgetabout them.

Kara Tepe 7th/8th August: after shoes were in the sea, people washed out the salt and put them to dry in the sun

Pictures of Moria from 3rd August. What is a detention camp? It is when no one can go out and no one can go inside and therefore cannot help and is not allowed to take pictures or document what is going on. It is exactly what it sounds like: Realistically it´s a prison.